I was driving home tonight, down 16th ave, when my steering got super shaky. I pulled off to the shoulder and checked my lug nuts to see if any of them was loose. They all seemed fine as I was going around the car until I got up to the front pass wheel.
As I walked around the front to the check front pass I noticed there was a nut missing. At first I thought that the one nut came loose, fell off and that was causing my vibration. Thats when I bent down to check the tightness of the remaining 4 lugs. Three of the nuts came out in my hand.
It appears that they SHEARED off the hub. There was only ONE bolt still attached to the hub. I am thankful that the last bolt held out until I could pull over, as I was going down 16th at about 100km/h in the left lane. If it broke, my wheel would have flew off, the brake hit the ground, and I would have slid across the 3 lanes of traffic. During rush hour, that couldnt have been good. BTW I ended up westbound on 16th, just under the 36th st overpass.
I had my car in the shop a few weeks ago, and I'm guessiung they over torqued the nuts. The shop recorded my mileage on the work order and since then I've only put on an additional 15 miles.
Is there anything else that could cause 4 of my 5 bolts to break off all of the sudden? If they did over tighten them, why was I able to drive down deerfoot and run a few errands before they broke. They all broke almost instantaneously because three of them were still in the rim socket, hadn't fallen out yet. What do I need to replace? The tow truck driver said I'd need to replace almost the whole front end assembly (tie rod, wheel bearing, control arm etc.)
If it was the shop that over-tightened them, is there any way I can go after them for the repairs. Even though it was a few weeks ago, I have proof the car wasnt driven since then.